SURBHI SAREEN

Book Review of The Soul Charmer

The Soul Charmer by Richa Saxena is a collection of poems that keeps you glued till the end. The book is in ebook format. The book is easy to read as an average reader can finish it in 40 minutes while a person like me finished it in 15 mins. The book surely reminds you of many poets and you can’t stop admiring the poet.

The cover of the book is dark and the silent girl tells us many unheard stories. It serves the purpose fully, the way she wants us to know.

The title is marvalous as The Soul Charmer seems as if something wants to soothe our soul. The book surely soothe us and we are transported in the world of a trance.

Remember the first time you uttered those three important words expressing your love or the first time when you said ‘goodbye’ to your loved one. The first time, you got a jolt in your heart or the first time you held a life in your arms.

Richa Saxena has tried to put forth a compilation of thirty-five surreal poems that would recreate that magic and unleash your deepest thoughts.

Seasons must have passed by, but that feeling still remains in the heart.

Her poems would revive those very thoughts, the ones said and the ones that remained unsaid .

The poems are divided into segments which only a deep reader can understand. Some poems are related to father-daughter relationship,some are sensual, some are on nature. Hence, through these sections I am reminded of the Nature lover, Wordsworth, I am reminded of Sylvia Plath’s Daddy and John Donne’s sensual poems like Flea, The Sunne Rising ; also some of the poetic technicalities of Robert Browning.

Dramatic Monologue

There are some of the emotional poems that reminds me of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue. It is a device in which the poet talks to himself. Poems like The Painful memories, Beyond those lofty walls, The Silent Tormentor

The characters in the poems are nature, father,mother,lover and the poet herself. She is seen as a daughter, lover, nature admirer in these poems.

The style of writing is simple, clear and lucid. The poems are 35 in number.There are questions, irregular verses,sensory devices. The use of figurative language is apt. Rhyme patterns are unnoticeable yet the essence of the poem remains till the end.